


The Beginnings of Long Distance

by TheSpace_Dragon



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Beginning of a Beautiful Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, but sometimes she gets tired, red loves her boys
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-08
Updated: 2018-01-08
Packaged: 2019-03-01 22:09:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,628
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13304325
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSpace_Dragon/pseuds/TheSpace_Dragon
Summary: Lance is feeling the beginning of a lonely existence with Team Voltron. He cares about his team, but when there's no one around to just hang with, things get real lonely real quick. At the same time, Keith is fighting for his place among the Blades of Marmora, and after his latest stunt, Kolivan has him on a short leash. Missing Team Voltron is an understatement and he desperately wishes he could talk to one of them--any of them.Fortunately for both, one of the few things they have in common has a mind of her own and she wants them both to be happy again.





	The Beginnings of Long Distance

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Nanhdato](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nanhdato/gifts).



> Welp! Another lovely gift for another great person. I really hope you enjoy this! I enjoyed writing the two of them being lonely and Red being like "NO stop that!" at the end. :D

 

After everything that they had been through, all the pain, the danger, the failures, the triumphs, Keith still wanted to go with the Blade of Marmora. It just didn’t seem right! He had told Lance what had happened during his trials, how he saw everything he wanted—his dad, the offer to learn about his mom—it was all there in that fucked up mindscape that the Blades created. Even Shiro.

Then there was the whole part of where Shiro broke into the simulation to help Keith, nearly having to fight their way out because the Red Lion was tearing the place apart, and Keith in all his coolness told Kolivan to take the knife and said, “I know who I am”, thinking that would be the end of it. Nope. Not at all.

Knife transformed into blade, Keith found out he was part Galra and boom they went off to end Zarkon like it was a done deal.

Then Shiro disappeared.

_No big deal._

Except it _was_!

The Black Lion chose Keith to lead and Red through a temper tantrum about being abandoned and Blue shut him out. Allura got Blue, he got Red, and Keith was in Black. It was the Great Lion Shuffle of the century in his humble opinion. At least Hunk and Pidge got to keep their lions. Allura said it had something to do with character development, but Lance wasn’t so sure about that. (He seriously believed it was because the Lions changed their minds.)

Then Shiro came back! And all was right again, except Shiro couldn’t fly Black right away, Keith decided to go galivanting off with the Blade of Marmora people. And Matt came back so Pidge and Hunk were off with him doing all the geek stuff. Like it wasn’t a bad thing, but you know, it wasn’t Lance’s thing.

At the end of it all, Lance was worried. Not to the point of terrified for someone he cares about, but just like, he was concerned for Keith. The last time they had heard from him at all was when they made that plan to save a third of the universe. _A third_. It was an insane plan and it wouldn’t have been so bad if _someone_ (Shiro) hadn’t insisted on figuring out what was causing Naxzela to act so freaking weird.

Next thing he knew, Lance was hearing about how Lotor came out of nowhere, saved Keith from his fucking kamikaze run at Haggar’s ship and stopped Naxzela from blowing up.

All in a day’s work, he guessed.

Lance sighed and scrubbed his face, lying back in his bunk. This was exhausting. He wanted to go home, but the universe needed saving, and that was bigger than him wanting to go home and sleep. He stared at the ceiling. So much had happened in last few months, maybe a year, but still, it was a lot. He hoped that everyone on Earth was okay.

He hoped Keith was okay.

 

. . .

 

Fun fact: Keith was not okay. Ever since the whole Lotor saved his ass and went wherever the fuck he went after, Keith had been stuck with Kolivan hovering over him like he was some kind child. (Then again, it wasn’t like Keith gave him any reason to _not_ think that about him.)

But still.

Keith had proven himself a warrior, had embraced the Blade of Marmora code: _knowledge or death_ , and frankly now he was just fucking fed up with not being trusted. He did what he had to do in order to keep as many lives alive as possible. And if that meant crashing himself into a particle barrier and dying, then so be it.

Well…

That wasn’t necessarily true.

When he had been about to hit the barrier, he couldn’t help the different memories that flashed through his mind. Shiro, the team, Lance, Red, Black… he missed them. A lot.

Keith looked out the port window he had in his room, it didn’t even look like their ship was moving, all the empty space was making everything stand still. He missed flying, rushing through asteroid fields in Red, feel her speed. And taking out dozens of Galra fighters by just barreling through them in Black. The power the Black Lion had was incredible.

He missed being with the team, even though he didn’t do much with them, but it was nice to know someone was there when he needed them to be. At the Blade hideout, it was awful. All these warriors and they were miserable, solely focused on their cause and nothing else.

It took awhile, but eventually Keith grew accustomed to that void in his chest, the ache that never left. Mission after mission, the trips through the market place where occasionally he saw Voltron, but never was he allowed to interact with them. Then he would see different shows on the broadcast networks, team Voltron forming treaties and performing and giving speeches. Keith knew he would have hated doing any of that but at this point, he hated not being able to talk to them more. Especially the bickering with Lance. He couldn’t explain why, but those moments made him smile, made him realize that Lance was witty and incredibly smart.

After a particularly difficult mission, losing one of the Blades that had gone with them, Keith stormed out of the ship and made for his room. He forewent the debriefing that Kolivan insisted on after missions, choosing instead to decompress in his room instead. He ranted, swearing and yelling at nothing; punching walls and bloodying his knuckles. “Why? Why do we have to follow the stupid rules? All we do is lose people.”

Growling filled his room, growing louder and louder the longer Keith was angry.

 

. . .

 

Lance was lying in his bunk when he heard Red growling. She was going on and on about how someone was being as thick as Balmera crust and dafter than a sacks bi-bos. He lifted his eye mask and sat up, feeling Red’s pent up energy coursing through him.

“Hey, Red? Is…is everything alright?”

His head was filled with more growling and an intermittent roar that longer he sat there. What was he supposed to do? With a groan he sat up, shedding his eye mask and slipping into his slippers (still the Blue ones, he would always be loyal to his main girl). Red roared again—loudly.

Lance winced. “Yeah, yeah, I’m coming, yeesh.”

He made his way to the hanger. Red was thrumming with energy, eyes lit and flashing. Lance frowned up at her, tilting his head in confusion as Red lowered her head and opened her mouth for him.

Over the course of time that he had been in Red as her paladin, Lance learned three things. One, Red was not as easy-going as Blue. She went after what she wanted and made sure she got it. Two, Red was easily the fastest Lion they had. Simply put, easy on the throttle, dude. And three… three was hard because everything did this, but don’t piss Red off. Not the easiest lesson for Lance, but he made do, and Red learned to lighten up just a _touch_. Not much, but it was something.

Lance walked up the ramp and into the cockpit. Sitting in his chair, he began to read all the screens, trying to figure out what was going on.

_He missed them, missed the team, missed seeing them._

He froze. That… That wasn’t him.

Images flashed through his mind, none of them his own. Strange market places, incredible planets, intense fighting, training and training and training.

Lance’s jaw dropped. It was Keith. All of it.

He started to swipe through on different screens while activating his coms. “Red, can you connect to Keith at the Marmorites’ headquarters? Or is communications device? Something? I know we aren’t Pidge or Green here, but, c’mon, we have to try.”

The Lion purred, bringing up another screen. Almost instantly, Lance was looking at someone’s ceiling.

“Hello?”

There was a crash followed by a groan and Keith’s raging bedhead appeared in the screen. The feed jostled a bit before it settled, and Keith was sitting at his desk with his tablet held out in front of him.

“Lance? How did you—”

Lance waved his hand and rolled his eyes. “Red wouldn’t shut up and pulled up your coms as soon as we felt that something was off.”

Keith rubbed his eyes and yawned, blinking wearily at him. “Huh. Weird. Was there something you needed?”

“I uh…” Lance thought back to all the memories that Red bombarded him just a few seconds ago. “Are you… you okay, man?” The silence that hung between them was palpable and Lance could see that Keith was uncomfortable about talking about it.

“What gave you that idea? I’m fine.” His words were a little bit off.

Lance sighed and sat back in his chair. “Cut me a deal here. Since, I like, woke you up in the middle of the night, we go back to bed, and we can call sometime tomorrow?”

His friend visibly sagged in his chair. “Yeah… we can do that.”

Lance smiled. “It’s a date then, g’night Keith.”

Keith sputtered, blush spreading across his cheeks before mumbling something back and logging off.

He stayed in Red for a bit longer, letting her pleased purrs wash over him. She was happy. Lance could feel how worried she had been over her previous paladin. He reached out and patted a dashboard. “It’s okay, big girl, I’ll check on him tomorrow.”

She rumbled again and powered down, opening her mouth for Lance to leave. He yawned himself, trudging back to his room, Keith’s blushing face following him into his sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm still around on tumblr, come talk with me, or at me, or whatever you can do to me on tumblr xD
> 
> [thespace-dragon](http://thespace-dragon.tumblr.com/)


End file.
